Spiral Palm - Pan Huan Zhang

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This form benefits the heart, kidneys, liver and digestive organs. With the twist to the left you get a deep compression on the spleen and small intestines. As you twist to the right, you squeeze out the liver and large intestines. As you raise your left arm up over your head, you open the area around the heart. Each twist wrings out the kidneys, too.

Benefits

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Spiral Palm has to be one of my favorite all time Qigong exercises. Spiral Palm, living up to its name, consists of large circular and spiral motions of the upper body, which can be combined with various stepping methods in more advanced Qigong. It even has some fun martial applications for self-defense, but when done in a martial way, the movements are compact and small as op-posed the large movements when done for health. In this Qigong, you start to learn how to spiral Qi from your feet to your hands. This Qigong deeply wrings out the organs and meridians, and feels great!

Instructions:

With the hands at the waist with the palms up as if holding a ball between your palms and your body and the fingertips facing each other in horse stance, inhale while ‘filling’ the ball. As you exhale, begin twisting your body to the right, wringing out to that side.

Turn your left palm so the fingertips are towards the sky and inhale as you bring the palm up and over your head. Once overhead, twist to the left while at the same time turning over the palm so it faces the sky, then reach back behind you and scoop with the hand, turning the palm down so the fingertips face the earth. Inhale while scooping and twisting back to the center. Repeat on the other side. As an added variation, as you scoop up, raise the body and as you scoop in, lower the body. This adds additional compression and ex-pansion to the organs.

Tips: Always keep your eyes focused on the palm which is moving.

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Anatomy

This form benefits the heart, kidneys, liver and digestive organs. With the twist to the left you get a deep compression on the spleen and small intestines. As you twist to the right, you squeeze out the liver and large intestines. As you raise your left arm up over your head, you open the area around the heart. Each twist wrings out the kidneys, too.

Fascia

The deep twists in the body really get into the Spiral Lines. (pic of spiral line and Qigong exercise here)

As you twist your arm and scoop upwards, you contract the Superficial Front Arm Lines and stretch the Superficial Back Arm Lines.

Benefits:

18 Reprinted from Anatomy Trains: Myofascial Meridians for Manual and Movement Therapists, 3E, Thomas Mey-ers, 2014, with permission from Elsevier

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Chinese Medicine

Spiral Palm is a Qigong exercise that moves in Qi in spirals as it massages and opens the liver and heart and also as it works on the digestive system. It provides a great spinal twist and stretch as well as stretch for the hamstrings and opens the liver meridian. In addition, this form really dilates all the me-ridians in the arms through the deep twists and rotations in the arms. It also wrings out the Governing and Conception Vessels.

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